ELECTION 2008

Obama mama related to Founding Fathers

Study finds ancestral links to Washington, Madison

Published: 02/01/2007 at 1:00 AM

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Barack Obama

Can Hillary top this?

The founder of an ancestry research tool that connected John Kerry and George W. Bush in 2004 says Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has an American pedigree connecting him to George Washington and James Madison – as well as Jimmy Carter and Quincy Jones.

Hawaii-based Millisecond Publishing Company, which was first to establish the cousin relationship between Bush and Kerry, says it has discovered Obama’s maternal ancestors establish his relationship to a number of U.S. presidents.

“His exact relationships are calculations based on a wealth of fully sourced knowledge within the Family Forest?, our proprietary deep family history research tool,” according to founder and president, Bruce H. Harrison. “On Friday we ran a search in the Family Forest? of the ancestors of the senator’s mother, Ann Dunham, and as the data reached back through many centuries of recorded history, we made some surprising discoveries.”

He said the software shows Dunham had deep roots in early colonial Virginia and New England, and some extending back for many centuries into Europe.

One of Obama’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfathers – dating back 12 generations – was the Hon. Laurence Washington, who built Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire, England. Over the course of five centuries, the historical record shows, he became the ancestor of President George Washington, General George S. Patton, Governor Adlai Stevenson, President Jimmy Carter and Quincy Jones, Jr.

“Of course, the Hon. Laurence Washington is also the ancestor of at least a million other living people including some very famous ones, but most are everyday folks,” adds Harrison.

Obama has emerged as a favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 – giving Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a run for her money.